The Messenger's Sword
by mandrake-o
Summary: The Winchesters finally got a lead on what can kill a Leviathan. The problem is it can only be wielded by the Nephilim Aaron Corbett and he has no idea how to use it. Spoilers up to 7.09. Technically a Fallen crossover.


**The Messenger's Sword**

**Author's Note:** Okay, this one takes a little explaining. This is technically a Fallen/Supernatural crossover. When I say "Fallen" I mean the mini-series starring Paul Wesley and not the novel(s) by Lauren Kate or Thomas E. Sniegowski's "The Fallen" (although I vaguely stole ideas from that). You should be able to read this even if you've never seen Fallen, so let me know if it makes no sense whatsoever. And you should let me know if you want clarification on whether something goes the Fallen or SPN canon way. Also, this story has secretly been posted entirely on my LiveJournal... which you'll have to do a little sleuthing to find because I'm not posting a direct link here.

**Timeline/Spoilers:** This story is set just after 7.05 "Shut Up, Dr. Phil" and five years after the end of Fallen. It does delve into the following episodes of SPN, but you can read this if you're caught up to 7.09 "How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters". No spoilers after that.

**Chapter 1**

_**Whitefish, Montana**_

Thankfully, the Leviathan in the back of the Impala held out until Dean and Sam got back to Rufus' cabin. Bobby was waiting for them there. They wrestled him into a chair, made sure he was chained, and went back to researching how the hell one killed a Leviathan. By the time the Leviathan woke, they were still at square one.

The Leviathan looked up at them blearily from his place on the chair. The spell seemed to be wearing off gradually, as he hadn't yet recovered the ability to speak. The humans knew when the Leviathan had gathered his wits, because he stopped examining the room, and started staring directly at them. A smirk crept across his face and Dean knew without a doubt that he was going to hate whatever came out of the Leviathan's mouth next.

"You know, I'm actually a little impressed you managed to get me here," he said. "But since I can't be killed, I'm more surprised you're sticking around."

"We got time," said Bobby.

"Humans," he said. "Always so over-confident."

"Why would you think we're being overconfident?" Sam asked, taking a step closer. "Sounds like you're the one underestimating us."

"Oh please," said the Leviathan. "You'll shoot me up with holy water, rock salt and cold iron, realise none of that's going to work then run home to your mommies when you can't think of anything else. Oh, I'm sorry. You don't have mommies, do you?"

"Enlighten us, then," said Dean, through gritted teeth. "What should we be shooting you up with?"

"Anything your little hearts desire," said the Leviathan. "It won't make any difference."

"Which only means that whatever it takes to kill you doesn't need to be injected," said Sam.

The Leviathan rolled his eyes. "Nothing can kill me." He smirked. "But since I can't get that through your thick skulls, do me a favour and cook up some nacho cheese, would you? I'm going to enjoy eating the three of you."

The three men reconvened in the corner, away from the Leviathan.

"He won't shut up," said Dean.

"Which means there's something to it," said Sam. "Let him run his mouth. He's bound to spill something."

"We can't be killed," the Leviathan called, letting them know he could still hear them. "You could go to Jerusalem and never find a way to kill me."

The brothers looked at each other. "Jerusalem?" said Dean, looking at the Leviathan.

"Just another place where you won't find something that will kill me."

"It's a start," said Bobby, adjusting his hat.

x x x

The hunters left the Leviathan downstairs, while they researched the new development. Bobby hung up his phone with a curt thanks.

"I got one of Eleanor's friends in Jerusalem looking into it," said Bobby.

"What are we looking for anyway?" said Dean. "Something that is no longer in Jerusalem?"

"Yeah," said Sam. "But Jerusalem might not be so much a reference to the city itself, but what it represents."

"And what is that, exactly?"

"Something biblical," said Sam. "Jerusalem is the heart of the Judeo-Christian religions. Could be whatever kills Leviathans is something that specifically exists because of those beliefs."

"Sounds like we're grasping at straws," said Dean.

"When aren't we?" said Sam.

It was Sam who found it in the end. Had Deen not been studiously ignoring every text that mentioned an angel he might have found it first.

"The Messenger's Sword," he read aloud from the Xeroxed pages of one of Bobby's more rare texts. "Was used by the Archangel Gabriel to purge the world of the Old Ones and send them into Purgatory."

"So Gabriel had a sword?" said Dean. "Like Michael's sword? His vessel?"

"No," said Sam. "A real, honest to goodness sword." He showed Dean the accompanying image of a girly-looking Gabriel waving a sword made of light.

"And now that Gabriel's dead it's just lying around somewhere?" asked Dean.

"Could be," said Sam.

"But when have we ever been that lucky?" said Dean.

Bobby's phone rang, and he stepped aside to answer it. When he came back, he looked resigned. "Eleanor's friend's got the same info we do. The Messenger's Sword ought to do it. Problem is, he says it can only be wielded by the Messenger himself."

"And Gabriel's dead," said Sam. "Another dead end."

"Wait a minute," said Dean. "We don't know that that's true. They said only an angel could kill another angel, but as long as you've got the right blade anyone can do it."

"We keep looking," said Bobby. "Hell for all we know the archangel Gabriel's only pretending to be dead." And the way no one in their life ever seemed to stay dead, even that sounded likely.

x x x

"So I called every hunter in the States," said Bobby, when the three of them stopped to eat dinner. "No one's seen anything that could be an archangel or his grace."

"Tried talking to our friend downstairs again," said Dean. "Think he realised he gave a little too much away because he didn't say a word."

"I found a prophecy," said Sam.

"Great," said Dean. "So much for Team Free Will."

Sam ignored his brother. "If what it says is true, somewhere out there is a Nephilim who is the next Messenger."

"There's more than one?" said Dean.

"Well if Gabriel really is dead," said Sam. "You'd think God might want someone to take his place."

"But a Nephilim? What the hell's a Nephilim?" asked Dean.

"Spawn of an angel and a human," said Sam.

The look on Dean's face was gobsmacked. "Angels can have babies?"

"So it seems," said Sam. "Actually, given what we know about Gabriel, chances are the Nephilim the prophecy calls the Redeemer, is Gabriel's kid."

"Is this Redeemer on our side?" Bobby asked.

Sam shrugged. "I guess we'd have to meet him. And for all I know, I'm wrong about the whole thing and the Redeemer hasn't even been born yet."

"Then we find some other way to use the sword," said Dean.

Sam shook his head. "I'm starting to think there is no actual physical sword. I think the sword simply refers to the power required to put a Leviathan back into Purgatory."

"What? So you want us to wait until some Redeemer kid is born? That could be decades. Centuries. There is no way I am waiting that long."

"I'm just trying to lay out the facts," said Sam. "It looks pretty dim but we've managed with worse before."

"Alright," said Dean. "What do we know about this Redeemer?"

x x x

"I think I've found it," said Sam, looking up from his laptop. "Since we know that Nephilim come into power at eighteen, have angels for fathers, and mothers who die at birth, I've been tracking orphans who turned eighteen. Back in 2006 in Lynn, Massachusetts, there's a huge electrical storm entirely localised to one property. The garage is destroyed, the house is a little battered, but the houses next door are completely unharmed. It didn't so much as rain a single drop. And after that their newly eighteen-year-old adopted son goes missing."

"So he's probably dead," said Dean. "I guess the angels got him." They'd learned that over the centuries, Nephilim didn't often live past their eighteenth birthdays because the Powers, a group of angels, combed the globe determined to kill all Nephilim and the angels who'd sided with Lucifer and fallen from grace. Unlike Anna, these fallen angels had had their wings torn from them while they were in heaven before being cast out. It meant they retained some small amount of their grace, enough to keep them alive indefinitely, and didn't need to take vessels. The Powers themselves seemed to rarely take vessels, instead choosing to expose themselves in their true forms. In general, they didn't meddle in the affairs of humans, and didn't appear in front of them.

"There's another article, a year and a half later, mentioning his return from the dead," said Sam. "Doesn't say where he went, though."

"So he's alive," said Dean. "Doesn't mean he's the Redeemer."

"It's the only lead we've got," said Sam. "Besides, there's another teenage girl mentioned in that second article. Says her family was murdered and she went missing just after her eighteenth birthday as well and came back with him. Two Nephilim, kind of makes you think they'd know something."

"All right," said Dean. "I guess we're going to Massachusetts."

"Be careful," said Bobby. "You don't know what you're dealing with."

"We've dealt with archangels before," said Dean. "I think we can handle a baby half-angel."

"He ain't so much half-angel as entirely angel and entirely human. The sum of both parts."

"That doesn't make any sense," said Dean.

"Nephilim have an angel's grace," said Sam. "And a human's soul. And if we've learnt nothing in the past few months it's the power of a soul."

"So we're dealing with a juiced up angel?" Dean lifted his angel killing blade, remembering how Sam had stabbed Castiel and failed to kill him. "This thing even going to work?"

"Should do it," said Bobby. "A Nephilim's physiology is still mostly human."

"What about the baby part?" asked Dean. "Does a Nephilim live forever?"

"No," said Bobby. "But longer than a human, barring unnatural death. And since this one's the Redeemer, after that I think his soul goes to heaven."

"And becomes a fully-fledged angel?" asked Dean.

"Could be," said Bobby. "Could be his soul behaves human and his grace becomes an angel."

"So there'll be two of him?"

"Let's leave the afterlife where it is," said Sam. "And just try to avoid having to kill him in the first place."

x X X x

A/N: Alright. That's the first bit. Next bit should be up tomorrow. Let me know if this makes no sense whatsoever.


End file.
